Report: Communist China Intensifies Efforts to Influence European Elections Amid Rising Tensions with US
Almost 400 million voters across Europe will head to the polls this week to choose lawmakers to represent them in the European Parliament.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) became “increasingly sophisticated and active” in its efforts to influence European elections and policy making, a Czech study has found.
The study comes just days before the European Parliament election. Almost 400 million voters across Europe are preparing to head to the polls from June 6 to 9 to choose lawmakers to represent them in the European Parliament for the next five years.
The results of the election could “reshape the political landscape, potentially leading to a shift in attitudes toward China and a reluctance to confront the challenges posed by foreign interference in democratic processes,” stated the report authored by Kara Nemeckova and Ivana Karaskova. Ms. Karaskova served as a special adviser to the vice president of the European Commission and a commissioner for values and transparency, Vera Jourova.
Brussels’ role has become more crucial for the Chinese regime amid rising tensions in its relationship with Washington. The CCP “needs access to the European market to stimulate its economic growth,” the report states. “Sustaining market access is not only crucial for selling goods but also for gaining access to European technologies, which are vital for China’s technological advancement.”
‘Ever-expanding’ Election Intervention Techniques
Over the past decade, the CCP has engaged in cyber-enabled interventions in “no fewer than 10 elections in seven distinct countries,” mainly focused on the Asia-Pacific region, according to an August 2020 study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The CCP has sought to hack into voter databases, breach parliament servers, or conduct spear-phishing attacks against candidates and campaign staff to gather intelligence, the researchers found.
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These efforts include a “complex and ever-expanding” array of techniques utilized by the CCP, from leveraging political influence through fostering party-to-party dialogues, to “engaging in information manipulation and acts of bribery and espionage.”
Chinese hacking group APT31
Among the recent revelations was the extensive cyber attacks by a CCP-backed group identified as APT31. According to U.S. prosecutors, the hackers targeted a broad swath of officials, lawmakers, and businesses across the world for more than a decade because they were deemed to be critical of the CCP.
U.S. officials say the cyber espionage campaign targets all European Union members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a coalition of global lawmakers focused on constructing a coordinated response to challenges posed by the Chinese communist regime.
EU ‘Particularly Susceptible’
The report cited a January projection by the European Council on Foreign Relations, suggesting that hard-right groups could emerge as the major winners of the 2024 European elections. The Identity and Democracy (ID) parliamentary group is projected to increase its representation from 59 to 98 seats and become the third-largest political grouping in the European Parliament.
The Czech report found that the CCP has focused on engaging with previously marginalized right-wing forces in an effort to expand its influence in the EU’s policy-making.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD), previously part of the ID group in the European Parliament, sent a high-rank delegation to China in June 2023 in response to an official invitation. The AfD’s co-leader, Alice Weidel, a fluent Mandarin speaker, spent almost a week in Beijing and Shanghai, accompanied by Peter Felser, AfD’s foreign policy spokesperson, and Petr Bystron, a candidate in the EU election.
The German party made headlines in recent weeks as an aide to its member of the European Parliament (MEP) was arrested over China spy claims.
The report found that it’s not only right-wing politicians who have been courted by the CCP, but also those from left-wing parties.
One example highlighted in the research is the CCP’s regular engagement with the leader of Germany’s Die Linke. The party is a member of The Left coalition group in the European Parliament and is projected to
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